Thursday, September 04, 2008

These days Sri Lanka has been facing a power crisis. When considering the national grid, about 60% is contributed by fossil fuels. Sri Lanka does not have fossil fuel resources and being a developing country, Sri Lanka has to spend lot of money for importing crude oil and refined oil. As a result of that, Sri Lanka has to go to an alternative energy source.

About 2-3 decades ago, people thought that, by developing the hydropower projects, power crisis can be solved. But all of us had to experience power cuts about 4 years ago, due to lack of rainfall. Climatic changes can directly affect on hydropower plants. Therefore, Sri Lanka should attention on non-conventional renewable energy sources such as dendropower.

Dendropower is , energy produced by using biomass. As biomass, Gliricidia biomass can be used. Gliricidia sepium is an ideal species for generating dendropower in Sri Lanka as it is a common species which has a rapid growth rate. By maintaining Gliricidia plantations for energy production, additional benefits can also be obtained by people in rural areas. Gliricidia based dendropower is a cheap energy source compared to fossil fuels. And it is also an environmental friendly energy source.

Currently, dendropower is already used in Sri Lanka. Therefore, there is a great potential for Gliricidia based dendropower in Sri Lanka.A

Between 1970 and 2004 the annual emission of CO2 grew by about 80% and during the last century, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by twelve fold. Due to the greenhouse gas effect, with the increase of greenhouse gases (GHG) present in the atmosphere earth’s atmosphere get warmer and warmer. This cause climate change and other related problems. In 1990 IPCC mentioned that climate change is a threat to a whole world and whole world should be joining together to solve this issue. Then the UNFCCC was established and enter into force in March 1994 .Which works with the objective of stabilizing atmospheric concentration of GHG at safe levels that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, but this did not mentioned the quantity of the level of reduction of GHG.

Therefore in 1997 Kyoto protocol was adapted with the major objective of reduction of GHG by industrialized countries at least 5% compared to the emission levels in 1990 during the period 2008-2012.Accroding to the Kyoto protocol there are 3 mechanisms which can be use to meet the GHG emission reduction targets; Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Joint implementation (JI), International Emission Trading.

CDM is the mechanism which implementing projects in developing countries that reduce emissions of GHG or absorb GHG from the atmosphere and sell the amount avoided or absorbed to developing countries. There are 15 potential sectors for CDM listed by UNFCCC and among them the potential sectors identified for Sri Lanka are Energy, Industry, Transport, Waste management, Agriculture, Forest management, Plantations. Among these sectors almost all Sri Lankan CDM projects registered so far in the hydropower sector. But Sri Lanka also has the potential to conduct CDM projects in the other sectors also. The major issue related to CDM is lack of awareness, high cost of preparing PIN/PDD therefore high initial cost, difficulties in finding international buyers. Create an awareness programs at national levels and give an international exposure to our CDM potential and CDM projects are some of the solutions that can be given for the issues.

According to the UNFCCC statistics it shows that the India and China get more benefits than Sri Lanka.CDM is the one of the best mechanism that can be implementing in our country as a developing country to contribute to the reduction of Global warming.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

An area of land and /or sea especially dedicated to the protectionof biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and manage through legal and other effective means”(IUCN1994). Protected areas (PAs) can be categorized in to six types, according to their management objectives. Category I to VI.

In Sri Lanka, there are eight types National Protected Areas. Strict Nature Reserves National Parks, Nature Reserves, Jungle corridors, Refuges, Marine Reserves, Buffer Zones, and Sanctuaries. Nearly all the natural forests that exist at present are state owned and under the purview of three institutions, namely the Forest Department, Department of Wild Life Conservation and the Divisional Secretaries.

In Sri Lanka, Current legislations for PA’s are mainly categorized in Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (FFPO). The category 5, 6 and 7 are introduced in 1993 (act no 49) by amending the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (No 2 of 1937)FFPO (amended)was approved y the Cabinet of Ministers on 12March 2008.It has been forward to Government Printing Dept on 8th June 2008 for gazzeting. If is expected to submit to parliament and get approved in August 2008.

Some of the policies on Protected Area are categorized in Management and wildlife Conservation National Policy. There are Fines and penalties for illegal activities in PA”s mentioned in the ordinance.(E.g.: For Strict Nature reserves Entering without permission ,15000-50000, 2-5 yrs ) When we consider about the current status of the legislation, The main policy making body for the PA’s in Sri Lanka is Department of wildlife and conservation. Almost all the legislations have been prepared according to the FFPO.DWC have amended seven items in the FFPO, Mainly they have consecrated on, Increasing fines for the illegal activities, Evade the loop holes in legal framework, Make new provisionexisting legal barriers.There are not enough laws and regulations are currently in operations according to the FFPO and wildlife policy. Some of them are lack of intervention of the police, not enough staff for handle the legislation in WDC. In adequate staff to ensure proper protection, lack of proper transport facilities, not enough weapons to control the illegal activities and poor inspection. Another major problems are, political influences(when making legislation, when implementing the existing laws)Influences of NGOs, Bribery and corruption, Enforcement of existing laws & regulations of protected areas should concentrate on most common illegal activities & violations.

As My recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the legislation on protected areas, the Policy making bodies should be well organized, and all the officers should be well aware about its operations. There should be political support for the policy making and the implementation of the above.The relevant authorities should get support/ assistance from Non government Organizations in making legislation. Recruit more officers and give them a good train. As the community, we should give our full support to the administrative to implement the legislation and conserve the protected Areas.It is recommended that development of an integrated operation plan that takes in to active consideration not only conservation and protection and enhancement of fauna and flora.

Timber Depots are the places where the swan timber or logs are stored and sells. There about 397 timber depots are distributed in all over the country. The majority of them are medium and small scale. State timber cooperation (STC) was established in 1968.It is the Government Corporation responsible for harvesting and marketing wood from State-owned forests and forest plantations. STC has several timber depots distributed all over the country.Kaldemulla, Orugodawatta, Pannipitiya, Moratuwa are some of them.

Timber depot at Kaldemulla mainly obtain timber by Logging from state –owned forests and plantations Timber get from State owned lands currently under going development programmes , Timber get from, construction of highways, proposed electricity programmes, removal of dangerous tree, illegal timber capture from forest department. Demand for timber is very high. At kaldemulla, annual demand and supply may vary.

Development of this industry can be done by doing SWOT Analysis, Pest Analysis and 4P’s concepts. In my presentation I have mainly discussed about SWOT Analysis, Some of the Strengths are providing good quality timber, availability of timber at any time. Supply different sizes of swan timber customer needed. A good way of utilization of timer obtain from situations such as constructing/development projects, trees damaged due to accidents, having a continuous demand in whole year. Some of the Weaknesses are lack of skilful workers, Increasing the prices of the sawn timber and logs, Having a high production cost such as, labour cost material cost Due to less economic stability most of the depot owners can not adopt advance technology and use of multipurpose machines, In proper waste management, no job security in the industry.Some of the opportunities are high local demand for sawn timber and logs, the manufacture of various wood products such as toys, wooden components, crafts, parquetry, carvings, etc are the most important wood-based export industry, availability of timber in Sri Lanka is very high. Treats can be identified as Political interference in distribution of timber. Providing low quality timber to the customers at a lower price, Difficulties may be arise transporting timber logs.

Developing the industry can be done by introducing the new technology to the existing. It will increase the efficiency and reduce the generation. Improve the of saw dust. Storage of timber should be managed in proper way which will lead to reduce the waste. And they can improving the sales by advertising and increase the profit, by having good customer relationship and develop the exporting of Sri Lankan timber.